A START, BUT NOT SOLUTION

It should not have taken a year's worth of pressure and a reporter asking
questions to get a dollar store in Edmonds to agree to stop selling Pyrex
glass tubes used by drug users as crack cocaine pipes.

That decision should have come the first time the community - and police -
told the store owner of the alternative use for the tubes.

It's hard to believe someone wouldn't know why people were buying the
pipes, especially given how easy it was for NewsLeader reporter Michael
McQuillan to find. He simply walked into the store and asked to be directed
to the pipes, although he was first pointed to the hashish pipes.

But while this may seem like a big victory for the community, it may be
little more than a symbolic one, because as the owner correctly points out:
Even if his store doesn't sell these pipes, users will just find other
things to use for their drugs.

And he's also correct in saying that to rid the neighbourhood of the
problem, police need to go after the drug dealers. Hopefully the Mounties'
new problem-oriented police squad, along with a further increase in the
number of officers assigned to Edmonds, will help.

Sadly though, it will probably take more than that. It will take a complete
revitalization of the area, which is just what Mayor Derek Corrigan has
committed to do. Unfortunately, this takes time and the community is
growing tired of waiting.